Archive for the 'Microsoft PowerPoint Tips' Category

Most people will blame the presentation, not the presenter, which is the first thing you can avoid: Pre-made slide templates. There are plenty of these templates that come with PowerPoint, with even more online, some for free and some for a price. The best thing you can do is to start with a blank presentation. Create your own presentation from scratch, personalise it and show off your style. A presentation that is adapted to the presenter is better than a presenter that adapts to a presentation.

Skip to the point

When listing a few items or objectives, many users might fall for the bullet point trap! During a presentation bullet points can take focus away from the presenter. However when you list each point one at a time with spaces and a row each it makes the point seem more clear and connected. This is improved more when you place the list next to an image or a graph that is meant to be the real focus.

A great feature in Microsoft PowerPoint is the ability to design your own theme and layout. It allows the user to freely design their slides and deliver quality presentations that are suited to their business style.

To create your own personalized theme, simply open a new blank presentation and click on the View Tab. Now in the Master Views Group, select Slide Master.

The Slide Master is the largest picture out of all the others in the slide thumbnail drop down. Other slide layouts are situated underneath the slide master.

To allocate changes to the slide master/slide layouts, select the Slide Master tab, and try the following:

Try a colorful theme and add special fonts and effects, or click Themes, and choose a theme from the gallery. Use the scroll-bar on the right to see more themes.

To change the background, select Background Styles, and choose a background from the drop down menu.

To add a placeholder (add’s text, pictures, chart, videos, sound, and other objects), select the Insert Placeholder option in the tool bar , now select the option you would like to add into the slide.

We hope you found this tip helpful. For any other tips on PowerPoint, Check out our PowerPoint Tips

Finding recent documents has been made easier in Office. Looking at PowerPoint 2007 and 2013 we will look at the differences between the ease of access.

When you need to find a certain document you needed to click Open from Office button then search through your documents looking for the right one. With Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 you can find everything much easier.

If you click on the Office button on the top left and it comes up with the main menu and on it will be your most recent documents that you have worked on and saved. So if you need to open up one of those documents again you can just click on it from that list and it’s done. So it saves you looking through your documents trying to find the right one.

This feature can also be done in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013. All you need to do is click Open from the File Tab and your Recent Presentations can be viewed straight away just like below. In PowerPoint 2013 you are able to see the first slide, making it easier to remember what presentation you want.

After much extensive research on Twitter, we worked out that the most used hashtag for PowerPoint was #dosanddonts. It was apparent that a lot of people wanted advice on how to produce a great PowerPoint but didn’t know how to keep it interesting and not too full on at the same time. So here are our best suggestions.

#DONTS

Minimal might be fashionable, however, no one likes a boring presentation. Creating something interesting is key, so make sure you avoid something like this at all costs.

There is nothing worse than black and white for a PowerPoint. It’s important to use the right colours so that it is eye catching and bold. Imagine that every slide is a billboard advertisement. It’s also crucial that you pick the right fonts, design, and layout. No one can take Comic Sans seriously and Times New Roman is is old and boring.

There is nothing more annoying than something that is loud and in your face, so imagine reading a PowerPoint that had that effect. It can put a reader off instantly. Also, make sure that is doesn’t look childish. If it’s for business purposes, then it’s important to keep it looking professional and not look like a child has created it. Something that is definitely a big mistake, is writing too much information on one page so the audience has too much to read. Space your text out across multiple pages, let your PowerPoint ‘breathe’. Bullet points are great at creating easy reading.

#DOS

Its difficult to say what is a good PowerPoint presentation depending on what it is being used for, However, if it’s for profession business purposes then its easy to pick out what makes it look appealing.

It does look more visually appealing if the fonts are matching and there aren’t a lot of different styles. It can also help if the layout is simple and not to busy; you don’t want distract the audience from what you’re trying to promote. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so grab the audience’s attention and say what you want with an image instead of lots of paragraphs.

We hope this Tip helped, for anymore questions for may have you can drop us a message on Facebook or Twitter.

You’ve got a very important presentation coming up in the next few days! You presentation is completed with all the information you want to deliver but you feel it has something missing? Why not spice up your presentation with a Video or with Audio?

Inserting Video and Audio on PowerPoint 2010 is a very simple task.

Navigate to your Insert tab on the ribbon and on the far right of this tab is your Media Group as seen in the image above.

This group is broken down into a separate section for Video and Audio.

Under the Video option you have 3 options to choose from:

Video from file: This allows you to import a video from your computer.

Video from Web Site: This allows you to embed a video from a website like YouTube.

Clip Art Video: This allows you to import a video from the offline/online clip art gallery.

Under the Audio Option you have 3 options to choose from:

Video from file: This allows you to import an audio file from your computer.

Clip Art Audio: This allows you to import an Audio file from the offline/online clip art gallery.

Record Audio: This allows you to record Audio in real time and insert straight into the PowerPoint.

Once the video or audio file is in, you are then able to modify it your hearts content.

Are you tired of using the same old plain backgrounds in your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations? Well now there is a way where you can use your own captured images to great effect as custom backgrounds in your slides.

In this Microsoft PowerPoint tip, I will explain how you can use a photo to its maximum potential as a background and edit it without the need for expensive photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, using a simple PowerPoint tool for instant effective results.

To begin, follow these simple steps:

Display the slide or the slide master.

Insert a photograph by going to Insert and select Picture. Here you can choose to use a digital photo that you took yourself or any other image that you have saved on your machine. If, however you choose to use an image from the Clip Art collection, go to Insert and select Clip Art.

With the photo selected, resize it or use the Crop button on the end of the Picture Format toolbar to crop it so that it fits the slide.

With the picture still selected, select the Recolor option and select Washout from the options available, as you see here encircled.

Your image will now be lighter meaning that your text will now show above it clearly. There you have it; your image will now serve as the perfect background to your slides.

If you think that the image is too light/dark, just use the Brightness & Contrast controls until you have it to your liking.